


Matrix

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [681]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27322561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: Anonymous askedNeither weird nor rare and you might've written something similar already but Penny trying and failing to seduce John
Relationships: Penelope Creighton-Ward/John Tracy
Series: prompt ficlets [681]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/53353
Kudos: 12





	Matrix

Penny went through ever male of dateable age she knew with mathematical rigour.

Some were too short, too tall, based in incompatible climes. One’s laugh grated at her nerves, another had an irritating habit of picking his teeth after meals. Several were discarded as mere infants in almost-adult bodies.

The list winnowed quickly, potential suitor after suitor falling by the wayside.

Penny knew soon people would start to speculate about potential partners; she intended to get ahead of the curve, ride the wave, control the storm.

Soon there were three candidates. She laid their photographs out in a grid around her notes, considering purely aesthetic appeal. One was handsome and he knew it, square jaw and hair falling in a dark, rakish wave over his forehead. But there was arrogance in his sneer, and Penny closed the tile without regret.

The second had a kind of boyish charm, and she considered for a moment before turning to the third candidate.

Jeff Tracy had several sons, most of whom had failed to make the cut for being unavailable, immature, distracted by other interests. One son remained in the running.

John’s hair was golden in the sun, and she found herself charmed by barely there freckles speckled across her nose. Yes. Him. He would do nicely.

Penny picks a dress designed to thrill for the next time their paths would cross, a sparkling diamond hung low in her cleavage. She could feel eyes turn to track her across the floor, the party opening in front of her like a wave.

John was sat at the edge of the festivities, not fully a wallflower but not in the hubbub. Penny smiles, slow and seductive, as she claims the bar stool next to his. It’s high enough that when she crosses her legs, the slit in her dress falls open just this side of artfully. “Well hello stranger.”

They’ve been in the same circles just long enough that he smiles at her little joke. “My Lady,” he says, a formal little bow she likes. He doesn’t try to snatch up her hand like so many others, and she likes that more.

Silence settles, and its only awkward because Penny is expecting him to follow the script that every other man in this room knows. “So,” she says slowly, prodding the conversation along. “What have you been up to?”

John’s smile takes her breath away, and the sudden wave of facts about astronaut training nearly knocks her off her seat. But, despite her having never really been interested in space beyond the long-promised space hotel, John’s stories are _interesting_ and she finds herself leaning in, engaging, her previous mission forgotten.

She leaves the party still single, but with a new friend, and feels all the richer for it.


End file.
